Ottawa, Jan 7 (IBNS): Canadian officials on Sunday said they are treating a Quebec woman's disappearance in Burkina Faso, a landlocked country in west Africa, as kidnapping, media reports said.

Edith Blais, 34, and her Italian travel companion Luca Tacchetto has been missing since Dec 15.

Marie-Claude Bibeau, the office of International Development Minister, told Radio-Canada they are treating the case as kidnapping. However, the ministry has no confirmation yet over the matter, CBC News reported.

Global Affairs Canada said it is treating the case as an "extremely high priority", the media outlet said.

Blais' mother Jocelyne Bergeron said she spoke with her daughter last on Dec 13. Blais was then in Mali.

Bergeron had also launched an online effort to trace her daughter. Bergeron said she had received positive responses. "In this sadness, in this anguish, we feel supported, as we never thought we could be supported," she was quoted by CBC News.